Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Javeed Ahmad has tweeted that there are loopholes in the Kenyan woman’s story as Ola cab driver has denied the attack on her.

Greater Noida police have raised doubts over Kenyan woman’s account of the attack after (HT Photo)

A Kenyan woman who claimed locals in Greater Noida assaulted her was depressed because of personal issues and fabricated the attack, an African student group said on Thursday, apologising for what they called a “cooked-up” story.

The remarks came minutes after Uttar Pradesh police said the Kenyan national – identified as Maria Burendi – had lied about the assault with electronic evidence and eye witness accounts tearing holes in her account. The woman, in her early 20s, had claimed five men pulled her out of a cab and thrashed her while she was on her way to a friend’s apartment in Greater Noida’s Omicron Society.

But police said on Thursday that her narrative was false.

“We interrogated the driver and he revealed he dropped her safely at her drop location at Omicorn society in Greater Noida. GPS movement of car and payment slip of Ola cab driver show that car’s movement was not stopped during the journey. The lady has been lying,” said Dharmendra Singh, senior superintendent of Police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Representatives from the Nigerian Students’ Welfare Association apologised soon after for the incident that grabbed headlines because of a spate of attacks against Africans in the area, starting last Sunday.

Alleged attack on Kenyan lady in Gnoida. Glaring loopholes in her story. Working to ascertain motive.

“We investigated the matter later in the evening yesterday and found that the woman was under distress due to personal issues. She had cooked up this story and we would like to offer our apologizes to the Police and people,” said Charles Kennedy, vice-president, Nigerian Citizen Welfare Association.

Police said they decided not to press any charges against the woman in an attempt to defuse tensions between Africans and locals. Frederick, a representative from the Kenyan high commission, said that the embassy was content with the investigation. “We are satisfied with the police investigation into the matter and the police have assured us that they will not press any charges against the woman,” said Frederick.

Police said Maria booked a cab at 5:50 am on Wednesday from Delhi Police society Greater Noida to Omicorn society. “The GPS movement of cab showed that the journey was complete by 6.20 am and the payment was made to the driver at 6.30 pm. She claimed she was attacked by a group of men during the journey and the cab driver fled the spot. But the electronic evidence suggest otherwise,” said Sujata Singh, superintendent of Police (rural).

“I dropped her to Omicorn society and the cab had not stopped anywhere. I even waited for the next twenty minutes near the society waiting for my next pick up. No such incident occurred,” said Pintu.

Police also said that a Police Control Room van had been deployed near Omicorn society during the alleged incident. “A PCR was stationed right outside the society where Maria claimed that she was attacked. Even they did not notice anything suspicious,” said Dharmendra.

Meanwhile, the police added one more name as prime accused in the Monday evening race riot that occurred at Pari chowk in Greater Noida. This makes the entire tally of six accused persons.

“Since there were thousands of people in the demonstration at Pari chowk that later turned violent, we have roughly mentioned 1200 unnamed people as mob in the FIR. However, there was an addition in the list of prime accused making it to total six persons,” said Sujata Singh.

The sixth person to be included in the FIR is Jatin Bhati, a young member of Akhil Bharatiya Veer Gurjar Mahasabha. This recent development has supposedly irked local leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu Yuva Vahini who allege that the police is targeting activists.

“All the prime accused in the FIR are city based activists who were at the spot to demand justice for the death of Manish Khari. The real miscreants have not been touched by the Police,” said Chainpal Singh Bhati, district president, Hindu Yuva Vahini.